Haifa Armed Camp As Death Toll Mounts to 28; 2 Warships Bring Troops

This city was an armed camp today as Arabs and Jews before dawn buried 23 dead, the toll in yesterday’s 30-minute pitched battle which had transformed a new business center into a shambles resembling Shanghai and Madrid.

Five more deaths were added to the toll this morning, when four Arabs wounded yesterday died and a Jew was killed by Arabs who fired into a party of Jews walking near the Bourge, a mixed quarter. Seven other Jews were wounded in the shooting.

The British cruiser Emerald is scheduled to arrive here today with reinforcements needed in view of the critical situation. The battleship Repulse, with a complement of 1,200 men, is expected to weigh anchor in Haifa bay tomorrow.

Tension was at the breaking point as hundreds of steel-helmeted troops occupied danger points throughout the city and posted machine guns on the roofs of big Jewish cooperative apartments and a midtown Jewish school.

As this correspondent watched from a window in busy, modern Kings’ Way yesterday’s clash developed into the greatest holocaust since the beginning of the Arab rebellion in 1936. When troops and police had succeeded in restoring order, with curfew and bullets, Arabs counted 18 dead and 60 wounded, Jews five dead and more than a score wounded. Arab funerals were held at four o’clock this morning, with the Jewish burials an hour later.

The entire action lasted but 30 minutes, starting at 6.10 P.M. with the terrific explosion of a bomb that had been hurled into the municipal vegetable market. The explosion produced a majority of the Arab casualties, while shots, knives and stones accounted for most of the Jewish dead and wounded.

The bombing was followed by a barrage of stones laid down by Arabs against a Jewish-owned bus, whose driver replied with shots from his licensed revolver. Guns appeared from everywhere and the battle was joined, with Arab police adding to the confusion and terror by firing rifles and machine guns wildly into homebound crowds. Thousands of office workers watched from nearby windows as the battle unfolded. Shrieks of women spectators mingled with the whine of bullets and the cries of the wounded.

Jewish and Government ambulances rushed the wounded to hospitals as hundreds of troops and police occupied the streets, driving the crowds home under the quickly-imposed curfew.

Ten Arab policemen were being grilled at headquarters this morning on the wild shooting into the home going crowds.

Meanwhile, Arab laborers employed by the railways and by the Iraq Petroleum Company launched strikes protesting yesterday’s events. Jaffa Arab workers also went out on strike in sympathy.